


no light

by blurrywrote



Series: winter waltz [1]
Category: Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Gen, couldn't think of a title but florence was playing in my head, mentions of death and starvation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23291836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blurrywrote/pseuds/blurrywrote
Summary: this takes place during kohaku's childhood, the winter after her dad won his place as chief in ishigami village. there was a mention of a famine at some point that slaughtered turquoise's whole family, among others. the fact that turquoise acts motherly toward ruri made me wonder since ruri and kohaku's mom isn't around either. so this is the result :')
Series: winter waltz [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2136819
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	no light

* * *

The water is so cold that Kohaku can’t feel how sharp the rocks are beneath her feet, there’s a pressure and a sting when her foot slips and she grimaces but she doesn’t get out yet. Kinro is still in the stream with a spear, his aim strikes true whenever a fish comes around. They’re the youngest among the group, with Ginro keeping count just a bit away. They didn’t even manage to fill half a basket when Kokuyo and Jasper came by.

Her father rushes to pick her up. “You're trembling—”

“I’m fine.” The girl pouts and her wet hands touch Kokuyo’s sleeves as he makes her sit on a nearby boulder. Kinro is also out of the water, his shivers are just as noticeable but he doesn’t complain. “We wanted to help.”

“Kohaku, your foot,” the man inspects the cut, it’s deeper than it felt which is likely a bad thing. “It’s bleeding, and you’re pale. You’ve done enough helping.”

She looks to their basket. No, they did not do enough.

Jasper pats the boys’ shoulders to release them from chores and collects their gear. “Thank you, kids, but it is getting dark now. We will do this again early morning.”

Kokuyo wraps his daughter’s foot before they start to leave too. He offers to pick her up but she’s a stubborn cub, she proves her strength by the day. She still can’t feel the pain and she keeps her chin up the whole way to the village.

When they arrive Kohaku can hear crying in one of the huts. Her father urges her to walk faster before she can attempt to investigate, she sees that his face is solemn and she swallows her questions. She is young, but she is not naive.

She tightens her hold on her bag. “I’m gonna take this to Mama.”

Kokuyo’s eyes soften as he nods. “Go ahead, I’ll join you when I can.”

Kohaku runs ahead, her father’s shield hitting her back with every step. She spots her sister arriving with a small basket. They wave until they’re close enough and show each other their findings. Ruri managed some berries, enough to normally fill one person but right now...

“Are those good?”

“Chrome ate one to check,” Ruri answers, she looks down at the basket with a small smile. “I had to make him take half of what we found.”

They enter their hut, the shape of their mother laying under a thick cover still there as that morning. The young girls greet her as they set the food down and pat her side. The woman shifts her head and they warm up with her smile.

Since the cold season began their mother has been bed ridden with a bad cough. It’s a stark sight compared to what she’s usually like, she’s the best with a spear and always starts the dancing in every feast or celebration. Even as the woman lays most days, Kohaku can still see the bright life in her eyes. She wonders what made her so sickly, even before this hunger.

Every day since this winter became harsh, families go out to fish and hunt and gather what they can. Kohaku and her sister eat with their mom every night as the adult men meet with the chief more frequently. There was a pile the other day of wrappings and rope. It’s been a brutal winter, but the village has not fallen so Kohaku has hope.

And every night before they sleep, she can snuggle with her mom and sister under the cover to keep warm. Kohaku likes sleeping outside but in the hut she can feel her mom’s heartbeat and listen to her hum, she doesn’t sleep more soundly anywhere else.

One day when they’re getting ready for bed they’re disturbed by the sound of wailing. Kohaku runs to their hut’s door to check the commotion, she recognizes Turquoise through the dark and sees glimpses of her tear-streaked face in the torchlight. The woman is holding a small body in her arms, Kohaku doesn’t spot the husband until Turquoise staggers to the ground on her knees. She thinks he’s comforting her but he looks just as shaken.

Kokuyo’s hand is on his daughter’s shoulder and he pulls her back in the hut, he orders her to stay before he shuts the door and goes outside. She can still hear the screams, it tears into her little chest and grips her stomach hard. She grits her teeth and raises her shaking hand to the door again but stops when she hears Ruri whimpering, she turns around to see her mom beckon her and she sits on her lap and shuts her stinging eyes.

Eventually, the screaming stops and Kohaku’s mother sighs long and tiredly. “Oh dear Turquoise,” she whispers as she holds her daughters close. “I hope the rest of them make it.”

They do not.

Many among their dead are children and elders, it’s the most devastating thing Kohaku has witnessed thus far. She counts her blessings every day that she still has her family. And they almost make it.

One night, her hair is being combed as her mother recounts another story to a very attentive Ruri. Kohaku prefers to keep her hair up than to bother with it further past washing but she likes how gentle her mother’s hands are so having it played with doesn’t bother her.

“You can one day impress someone with your beautiful hair,” her mother teases.

"I don’t have time for that!”

Kokuyo is only too happy with that response. Her mother laughs until she can’t and Ruri fetches her water. Other than dying from an empty stomach, the coughing is worrying.

Nevertheless, Kohaku and her sister are given more on their plates. No matter how hard they scavenge and search their mother always urges them to eat the most. Kokuyo also eats more than his wife, as soft as she is she’s more stern and makes even grown men heed her words.

“Seeing you grow is all the strength I need,” the woman assures her daughters. Ever since that night filled with Turquoise’s desperation, Kohaku’s mother has been making sure her own kids eat well.

It frustrates Kohaku. She finds herself venting sometimes to any of those human rock formations outside the village, she asks a hand that juts out of the earth: “What’s your advice?  _ What can I do? _ ” The answer never comes, obviously, it’s dumb to talk to stone. As a pile of rocks, it must be nice to be free of these problems.

The cold is a heavy blanket, frost still nips at their skin and it feels too long since Kohaku stepped on warm earth with her bare feet. She catches less and less fish so she joins Ruri and Chrome in gathering but it isn’t much better.

The lakes freeze early in the season, the men would pick at the ice and some of the children play on the slippery surface. Kohaku pushes Chrome so he can glide forward, she and Ruri laugh when he loses his balance and falls on his rear. As hard as things are they try to make the best of it. When it nears the end of winter no one dares step on the thinner ice, but some kids throw pebbles on it to hear the echoing sounds.

After a week of not having dinner, Kohaku’s mother lays completely still on their bedding. Kokuyo is in another meeting and isn’t home yet, so the sisters surround their mom in their small embrace. Her breathing is deep, she plays with their hair as she hums something sweet.

The air is freezing in the morning, Kohaku buries herself closer to the curve of her mom’s body. She frowns after a moment, the arm around her is limp and the woman’s chest does not rise for a breath. Kohaku stirs, presses her ear to the other’s chest. No sound.

No heartbeat.

She quickly rises to shake Ruri and her sister jumps awake, seeing her green eyes flutter open has Kohaku’s throat constrict and she can’t make out the words. Her mouth is suddenly too dry.

“Kohaku?” Ruri still doesn’t notice that their mother is too still.

“Papa...” Kohaku licks her lips. Kokuyo wakes up with the sun and doesn’t disturb them, so he must not know. “I need to find him.”

The older sister sits up slowly and uneasy. “W-what’s wrong?”

Kohaku’s hand hovers over her mom’s pale lips. “Mama isn’t breathing, help me sit her up!”

Ruri’s eyes go wide and she kicks off the cover. They would have struggled to lift the adult’s upper body but she feels so thin... Once Ruri has a hold of their mom’s shoulders her bottom lip starts to quiver. The woman doesn’t react to anything, not from being moved or her daughter’s cries.

Kohaku doesn’t even put on her shoes as she rushes outside. The cut on her bottom foot she got from the stream opens up gradually as she stomps through the snow and dirt. She hears Ruri begging for her to hurry. She sees Turquoise come out of her hut and she yells after the running girl but Kohaku keeps going. She leaves a trail of blood behind her.

Her breathing is ragged and she’s limping when she sees her dad on his knees, he’s holding a white-furred rabbit with a red neck. He tenses at the state his youngest daughter is in.

“Kohaku, what did I say about your foot?!”

Jasper is with him, he’s the first to notice. “What is it—”

“Mama is dead,” Kohaku gasps. Her chest hurts. The air is a knife and her lungs bleed out faster than her dirty skin. “Mama is dead.” It still doesn’t feel real. Ruri would still be crying in their hut but Kohaku knew before she woke her up: their mom is going to be a part of that pile of wrappings and rope. “Mama is...”

Kokuyo has his hands on her shoulders, not bruising but rough. “Stop. Kohaku, that is—”

“You can’t hide me from it.” Her voice is bitter, she still can’t breathe right, and her little body spills salt and hot iron. “You can’t keep doing that. I already... she already—”

He leaves her cold when he lets go and rushes to the village. She looks at the rabbit on the floor and thinks maybe if she prays enough she can switch bodies with it. She succeeds for a moment.

Jasper lifts her and takes her home, his voice a soft blur in the back of her mind. The man already had to bury his own children, feeling how quiet and motionless Kohaku is makes him hold her tighter. He shields her from the falling snow and the gathering crowd, but the girl doesn’t respond until she’s back in her hut and Ruri’s arms are the ones wrapping around her.

“Kohaku!” Ruri cries and their tears mix, the younger doesn’t remember when she started crying though maybe she’s been the whole time. “Mama isn’t waking up, she isn’t...”

She knows. She knows. And she wants to wake up again. The stone person she woke next to is someone else. She can tell her mom about it and the woman can laugh long and hard about Kohaku’s outdoor sleeping habits. If she can just open her eyes again, start the day over. But she knows.

Kohaku holds her big sister tight, she listens to her heartbeat. She will not be sleeping soundly for a long time coming.

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't posted since last year. things are crazy out there huh. nothing better than getting into another series tbh


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